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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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At least 577 records · Page 32
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1990

Programmable remapper with single flow architecture

The invention relates to image processing systems and methods and in particular to a machine which accepts a real time video image in the form of a matrix of picture elements (pixels) and remaps such image according to a selectable one of a plurality of mapping functions to create an output matrix of pixels. Such mapping functions, or transformations, may be any one of a number of different transformations depending on the objective of the user of the system. The system remaps input images from one coordinate system to another using a set of look-up tables for the data necessary for the transform. The transforms, which are operator selectable, are precomputed and loaded into massive look-up tables. Input pixels, via the look-up tables of any particular transform selected, are mapped into output pixels with the radiance information of the input pixels being appropriately weighted. An earlier embodiment of the system included two parallel processors: a collective processor which mapped multiple input pixels into a single output pixel and an interpolative processor. The interpolative processor performed an interpolation among pixels in the input image where a given input pixel may affect the value of many output pixels. Several advantages are provided over previous embodiments in that the two distinct processors are replaced by a single processor capable of performing both types of operations (collective and interpolative) with no more complexity. Previously, there has existed no image processor or 'remapper' that can operate with sufficient speed and flexibility to permit investigating different transformation patterns in real time.

Fisher, Timothy E.↗
NASA NTRS1990

Method of up-front load balancing for local memory parallel processors

In a parallel processing computer system with multiple processing units and shared memory, a method is disclosed for uniformly balancing the aggregate computational load in, and utilizing minimal memory by, a network having identical computations to be executed at each connection therein. Read-only and read-write memory are subdivided into a plurality of process sets, which function like artificial processing units. Said plurality of process sets is iteratively merged and reduced to the number of processing units without exceeding the balance load. Said merger is based upon the value of a partition threshold, which is a measure of the memory utilization. The turnaround time and memory savings of the instant method are functions of the number of processing units available and the number of partitions into which the memory is subdivided. Typical results of the preferred embodiment yielded memory savings of from sixty to seventy five percent.

Baffes, Paul Thomas↗
NASA NTRS1991

Energy dissipation in structured electrodynamic environments

It is usually assumed that the profile of the ion Pedersen conductivity determines the altitude dependence of the energy dissipation rate This paper points out the strong altitude dependence of the energy dissipation rate on the spatial scale size of the imposed electric field. To illustrate the importance of such considerations, examples of the ubiquity to electric field structure in the high-latitude ionosphere are shown; this is particularly prominent when the interplanetary magnetic field has a northward component. It is then shown quantitatively how the existence of electric field structure with scale sizes of 10 km or less strongly impacts both the altitude extent over which the electromagnetic energy is dissipated and its partitioning between current systems perpendicular and parallel to the magnetic field.

Heelis, R. A.↗
NASA NTRS1992

Multidisciplinary computational aerosciences

By combining CFD with the computational state-of-the-art in structural mechanics, propulsion, aeroacoustics, electromagnetics, etc., multidisciplinary computational aerosciences (MCAS) poses a formidable computational challenge requiring the use of massively parallel machines. Research efforts must accordingly be directed to three areas: (1) parallel architectures, (2) systems software, and (3) applications software; attention is presently given to the last of these, in view of developments at NASA-Ames in solution methodology, physical modeling, and multidisciplinary validation experiments.

Kutler, P.↗
NASA NTRS1992

Comparison of optics and electronics for the calculation of matrix-vector products

Optical processors are attractive because of their ability to perform massively parallel operations such as matrix vector products. The inherently analog nature of optical calculations requires that optical processors be based on analog computations. While the speed at which such analog operations can be performed as well as the natural parallelism of optical systems are great advantages of optical processors, the analog representation of values severely limits the achievable accuracy. Furthermore, optical processors are limited by the need to convert information to and from the intensity of light. Digitization can be used to increase the accuracy of optical matrix-vector processors, but causes a severe reduction in speed. This paper compares the throughput and power requirements of optical and electronic processors, showing that optical matrix-vector processors can provide a greater number of operations/Watt than conventional electronics.

Gary, C. K.↗
NASA NTRS1947

Analysis, Verification, and Application of Equations and Procedures for Design of Exhaust-pipe Shrouds

Investigations were made to develop a simplified method for designing exhaust-pipe shrouds to provide desired or maximum cooling of exhaust installations. Analysis of heat exchange and pressure drop of an adequate exhaust-pipe shroud system requires equations for predicting design temperatures and pressure drop on cooling air side of system. Present experiments derive such equations for usual straight annular exhaust-pipe shroud systems for both parallel flow and counter flow. Equations and methods presented are believed to be applicable under certain conditions to the design of shrouds for tail pipes of jet engines.

HEAT EXCHANGERS, SHROUDED↗
NASA NTRS1990

First CLIPS Conference Proceedings, volume 2

The topics of volume 2 of First CLIPS Conference are associated with following applications: quality control; intelligent data bases and networks; Space Station Freedom; Space Shuttle and satellite; user interface; artificial neural systems and fuzzy logic; parallel and distributed processing; enchancements to CLIPS; aerospace; simulation and defense; advisory systems and tutors; and intelligent control.

Source record↗
NASA NTRS1999

Reconstruction of the 1997/1998 El Nino from TOPEX/POSEIDON and TOGA/TAO Data Using a Massively Parallel Pacific-Ocean Model and Ensemble Kalman Filter

Two massively parallel data assimilation systems in which the model forecast-error covariances are estimated from the distribution of an ensemble of model integrations are applied to the assimilation of 97-98 TOPEX/POSEIDON altimetry and TOGA/TAO temperature data into a Pacific basin version the NASA Seasonal to Interannual Prediction Project (NSIPP)ls quasi-isopycnal ocean general circulation model. in the first system, ensemble of model runs forced by an ensemble of atmospheric model simulations is used to calculate asymptotic error statistics. The data assimilation then occurs in the reduced phase space spanned by the corresponding leading empirical orthogonal functions. The second system is an ensemble Kalman filter in which new error statistics are computed during each assimilation cycle from the time-dependent ensemble distribution. The data assimilation experiments are conducted on NSIPP's 512-processor CRAY T3E. The two data assimilation systems are validated by withholding part of the data and quantifying the extent to which the withheld information can be inferred from the assimilation of the remaining data. The pros and cons of each system are discussed.

Keppenne, C. L.↗
NASA NTRS1999

Massively Parallel Assimilation of TOGA/TAO and Topex/Poseidon Measurements into a Quasi Isopycnal Ocean General Circulation Model Using an Ensemble Kalman Filter

A massively parallel ensemble Kalman filter (EnKF)is used to assimilate temperature data from the TOGA/TAO array and altimetry from TOPEX/POSEIDON into a Pacific basin version of the NASA Seasonal to Interannual Prediction Project (NSIPP)ls quasi-isopycnal ocean general circulation model. The EnKF is an approximate Kalman filter in which the error-covariance propagation step is modeled by the integration of multiple instances of a numerical model. An estimate of the true error covariances is then inferred from the distribution of the ensemble of model state vectors. This inplementation of the filter takes advantage of the inherent parallelism in the EnKF algorithm by running all the model instances concurrently. The Kalman filter update step also occurs in parallel by having each processor process the observations that occur in the region of physical space for which it is responsible. The massively parallel data assimilation system is validated by withholding some of the data and then quantifying the extent to which the withheld information can be inferred from the assimilation of the remaining data. The distributions of the forecast and analysis error covariances predicted by the ENKF are also examined.

Keppenne, Christian L.↗
NASA NTRS1997

High Speed Rotor Head Mounted Instrumentation System

NASA Ames Research Center has been investigating the air flow of a rotor blade on a UH-60 Blackhawk helicopter in-flight. This paper will address the hardware problems and solutions used to design and fabricate an instrumentation system on top of a UH-60 main rotor head. The instrumentation system consisted of 10 data systems operating in parallel and collected data from 370 sensors that are mounted in four rotor blades and on the rotating rotor head. The data was recorded on board the aircraft and simultaneously down linked to the ground station at 7.5 MHz.

Hee, Leonard↗
NASA NTRS2002

Automatic Multilevel Parallelization Using OpenMP

In this paper we describe the extension of the CAPO (CAPtools (Computer Aided Parallelization Toolkit) OpenMP) parallelization support tool to support multilevel parallelism based on OpenMP directives. CAPO generates OpenMP directives with extensions supported by the NanosCompiler to allow for directive nesting and definition of thread groups. We report some results for several benchmark codes and one full application that have been parallelized using our system.

Jin, Hao-Qiang↗
NASA NTRS2002

Graph Partitioning for Parallel Applications in Heterogeneous Grid Environments

The problem of partitioning irregular graphs and meshes for parallel computations on homogeneous systems has been extensively studied. However, these partitioning schemes fail when the target system architecture exhibits heterogeneity in resource characteristics. With the emergence of technologies such as the Grid, it is imperative to study the partitioning problem taking into consideration the differing capabilities of such distributed heterogeneous systems. In our model, the heterogeneous system consists of processors with varying processing power and an underlying non-uniform communication network. We present in this paper a novel multilevel partitioning scheme for irregular graphs and meshes, that takes into account issues pertinent to Grid computing environments. Our partitioning algorithm, called MiniMax, generates and maps partitions onto a heterogeneous system with the objective of minimizing the maximum execution time of the parallel distributed application. For experimental performance study, we have considered both a realistic mesh problem from NASA as well as synthetic workloads. Simulation results demonstrate that MiniMax generates high quality partitions for various classes of applications targeted for parallel execution in a distributed heterogeneous environment.

Bisws, Rupak↗
NASA NTRS2002

Automatic Multilevel Parallelization Using OpenMP

In this paper we describe the extension of the CAPO parallelization support tool to support multilevel parallelism based on OpenMP directives. CAPO generates OpenMP directives with extensions supported by the NanosCompiler to allow for directive nesting and definition of thread groups. We report first results for several benchmark codes and one full application that have been parallelized using our system.

Jin, Hao-Qiang↗
NASA NTRS2002

Research in Computational Astrobiology

We present results from several projects in the new field of computational astrobiology, which is devoted to advancing our understanding of the origin, evolution and distribution of life in the Universe using theoretical and computational tools. We have developed a procedure for calculating long-range effects in molecular dynamics using a plane wave expansion of the electrostatic potential. This method is expected to be highly efficient for simulating biological systems on massively parallel supercomputers. We have perform genomics analysis on a family of actin binding proteins. We have performed quantum mechanical calculations on carbon nanotubes and nucleic acids, which simulations will allow us to investigate possible sources of organic material on the early earth. Finally, we have developed a model of protobiological chemistry using neural networks.

Chaban, Galina↗
NASA NTRS2001

Shear stress reduces protease activated receptor-1 expression in human endothelial cells

Shear stress has been shown to regulate several genes involved in the thrombotic and proliferative functions of endothelial cells. Thrombin receptor (protease-activated receptor-1: PAR-1) increases at sites of vascular injury, which suggests an important role for PAR-1 in vascular diseases. However, the effect of shear stress on PAR-1 expression has not been previously studied. This work investigates effects of shear stress on PAR-1 gene expression in both human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) and microvascular endothelial cells (HMECs). Cells were exposed to different shear stresses using a parallel plate flow system. Northern blot and flow cytometry analysis showed that shear stress down-regulated PAR-1 messenger RNA (mRNA) and protein levels in both HUVECs and HMECs but with different thresholds. Furthermore, shear-reduced PAR-1 mRNA was due to a decrease of transcription rate, not increased mRNA degradation. Postshear stress release of endothelin-1 in response to thrombin was reduced in HUVECs and HMECs. Moreover, inhibitors of potential signaling pathways applied during shear stress indicated mediation of the shear-decreased PAR-1 expression by protein kinases. In conclusion, shear stress exposure reduces PAR-1 gene expression in HMECs and HUVECs through a mechanism dependent in part on protein kinases, leading to altered endothelial cell functional responses to thrombin.

Non-NASA Center↗
NASA NTRS2000

Fluid flow releases fibroblast growth factor-2 from human aortic smooth muscle cells

This study tested the hypothesis that fluid shear stress regulates the release of fibroblast growth factor (FGF)-2 from human aortic smooth muscle cells. FGF-2 is a potent mitogen that is involved in the response to vascular injury and is expressed in a wide variety of cell types. FGF-2 is found in the cytoplasm of cells and outside cells, where it associates with extracellular proteoglycans. To test the hypothesis that shear stress regulates FGF-2 release, cells were exposed to flow, and FGF-2 amounts were measured from the conditioned medium, pericellular fraction (extracted by heparin treatment), and cell lysate. Results from the present study show that after 15 minutes of shear stress at 25 dyne/cm(2) in a parallel-plate flow system, a small but significant fraction (17%) of the total FGF-2 was released from human aortic smooth muscle cells. FGF-2 levels in the circulating medium increased 10-fold over medium from static controls (P<0.01). A 50% increase in FGF-2 content versus control (P<0.01) was found in the pericellular fraction (extracted by heparin treatment). Furthermore, a significant decrease in FGF-2 was detected in the cell lysate, indicating that FGF-2 was released from inside the cell. Cell permeability studies with fluorescent dextran were performed to examine whether transient membrane disruption caused FGF-2 release. Flow cytometry detected a 50% increase in mean fluorescence of cells exposed to 25 dyne/cm(2) versus control cells. This indicates that the observed FGF-2 release from human aortic smooth muscle cells is likely due to transient membrane disruption on initiation of flow.

Non-NASA Center↗
NASA NTRS1999

Ionizing radiation-induced mutagenesis: radiation studies in Neurospora predictive for results in mammalian cells

Ionizing radiation was the first mutagen discovered and was used to develop the first mutagenicity assay. In the ensuing 70+ years, ionizing radiation became a fundamental tool in understanding mutagenesis and is still a subject of intensive research. Frederick de Serres et al. developed and used the Neurospora crassa ad-3 system initially to explore the mutagenic effects of ionizing radiation. Using this system, de Serres et al. demonstrated the dependence of the frequency and spectra of mutations induced by ionizing radiation on the dose, dose rate, radiation quality, repair capabilities of the cells, and the target gene employed. This work in Neurospora predicted the subsequent observations of the mutagenic effects of ionizing radiation in mammalian cells. Modeled originally on the mouse specific-locus system developed by William L. Russell, the N. crassa ad-3 system developed by de Serres has itself served as a model for interpreting the results in subsequent systems in mammalian cells. This review describes the primary findings on the nature of ionizing radiation-induced mutagenesis in the N. crassa ad-3 system and the parallel observations made years later in mammalian cells.

NASA Discipline Radiation Health↗
NASA NTRS2005

Parallel Rendering of Large Time-Varying Volume Data

Interactive visualization of large time-varying 3D volume datasets has been and still is a great challenge to the modem computational world. It stretches the limits of the memory capacity, the disk space, the network bandwidth and the CPU speed of a conventional computer. In this SURF project, we propose to develop a parallel volume rendering program on SGI's Prism, a cluster computer equipped with state-of-the-art graphic hardware. The proposed program combines both parallel computing and hardware rendering in order to achieve an interactive rendering rate. We use 3D texture mapping and a hardware shader to implement 3D volume rendering on each workstation. We use SGI's VisServer to enable remote rendering using Prism's graphic hardware. And last, we will integrate this new program with ParVox, a parallel distributed visualization system developed at JPL. At the end of the project, we Will demonstrate remote interactive visualization using this new hardware volume renderer on JPL's Prism System using a time-varying dataset from selected JPL applications.

Garbutt, Alexander E.↗